Category Archives: decorating

Oct5

Some shares

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Finally! The ’57 Thunderbird for Elijah at Love Quilts is finished. I think it looks cool. The variegated floss for the border and flames was one ‘x’ at a time.

ElijahLQ

And here is where I hung up my framed pieces.

The lighthouse is in the living room over a watercolor of the same lighthouse in Cape May!
Cape May2

Doesn’t this photo look like my cross stitched piece?

Cape May Photo

Walk in the Woods is hanging over the entertainment center on the only gold wall in the family room. I look at it every time I watch tv or am stitching. Great inspiration!
WalkWoods
I have another ‘share’ but you can’t see it until I send it to the recipient.
Today I was decorating for fall and Halloween in the middle of an allergy attack. I am not careful when I vacuum (like behind the entertainment center) and am down in the basement digging for boxes. I do wear a dust mask when it’s a planned session-lol But it wasn’t funny today. Took a few doses of allergy nasal spray. I am far from finished. Maybe tomorrow!

Oct4

I’m here…

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…let’s see…laundry….not too bad since there are only two of us. Finishing the Thunderbird for Love Quilts. Messing with paper crafts. Finding the fall and Halloween decorations and doing a little decorating outside the front door. And listing on eBay-my day so far. I’m glad I got the food shopping out of the way yesterday, though the store smells made me a little queasy. Still playing touch and go with my tummy, though I will say I’m not watching what I eat. Bri took me out for ice cream at Bruster’s last night. Now that place smelled heavenly as they are baking the waffle cones while we waited. It was a huge brownie (naughty) and some ice cream and lots of whipped cream. It seemed to coat my tummy. I’ve had this problem in the past and I think it can be stress related too. I have to watch food coloring too. Ginger is really good for what is ailing you. Even Bri said he’s been a bit off. It could be the change in the weather, though it’s in the 80s today.

I did watch Pushing Daisies and it was a bit quirky. It will be interesting to see what happens each week. I was trying to think what movie it reminded me of-I’d say ‘James and the Giant Peach’.

Jul6

Photo Hunt-fake

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I’m not big on fake flowers (I really didn’t even need to add this!), but I do have this fake yellow orchid in my family room window (pictured in dining room window) to give that area a little sunny color.

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Fake Orchid

My mom loves her fake flowers and buys them almost every time we go to JoAnns.

Mar20

Bunnies are blushing

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I do like my little bunnies-these are Blushing Bunnies (with other ‘friends’ like kitties and hedgehogs) all out for Easter and Springtime and will probably be there until September. I have some for Christmas cuties too.

Not a fun day as I had a sinus face ache at lunchtime. Taking a Tylenol right away saved me. Of course I’m thinking it’s the faulty heater-carbon monoxide poisoning or something. I bet I don’t sleep well tonight. Thank goodness the hunk of junk is going, but it’s kept us fairly warm all winter.

I got Martha Stewart’s newly released cookbook in the mail today that is based on her Everyday Food magazine which I love. I couldn’t really enjoy it as I was feeling so funky. I did find a recipe that utilized what I had in the frig and took some stuff out and added others. Came up with a grilled chicken and zucchini pesto tortellini dinner. It was good. Trader Joe’s sells the chicken already grilled and that’s my favorite way to eat it.

Bunnies are out!

Mar16

Mixin’ it up!

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Mother nature is playing games with us. We’ve had all kinds of weather from sleet, ice and snow. The snow one time was so fine it was like someone was shaving ice in the sky. We are hoping the power stays on. The furnace is running rough too. Tuesday can only come too soon.

Here are some photos I took around the house today:
I uncovered my pond (took off the netting) only for it to get covered again with ice
Uncovered the pond for it to get covered again.
These were my grandmom’s. My mom gave them to me the other day.
Mom mom’s vases
My glass egg collection, many gifts from Brian, so I think he really likes them.
Glass egg collection

Mar6

16 children

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On TLC last night the Duggar family special was on about them building their own dream house on 20 acres. 20 acres-so each of the 16 children could have an acre and build a home for themself someday. The dad and the bigger kids did a lot of the work themselves until it got too much and they called in a contractor. But what they did was amazing. Michelle the mom and the only non-J named family member was about to have baby number 16, so they wanted to get it finished.
(The names and ages of the Duggar’s children, and you’ll notice a pattern with their names, are: Joshua, 17; John David, 15; Janna, 15; Jill, 14; Jessa, 12; Jinger, 11; Joseph, 10; Josiah, 9; Joy-Anna, 8; Jeremiah, 6; Jedidiah, 6; Jason, 5; James, 4; Justin, 2; Jackson Levi, 1;Johannah, newborn.)

I think TLC came in and got a designer for them, sponsors, etc. Jim Bob is the dad (why do I think of The Waltons when I hear that name?) and is a real estate person. He must do extremely well. Michelle is the sweetest person. Talk about building a village! They remind me of Mennonites or Mormons, but are Southern Baptists who believe that God opens the womb. The girls wear long dresses and have long hair (mom too). What got me was the family closet. They all store their clothing in one room-bins for ‘dark socks’, etc. Mom has used heavy duty kitchen equipment that is worth $100k that they got for $11k. Mom is also the teacher. I must say all the children are extremely polite. The oldest son narrated the special and did an excellent job.

What have I been doing? Cleaning! I took down my winter snow scene yesterday and replaced it with my glass egg collection. I am having trouble finding Easter stuff. What else is new?

I have a pot of beef stew all set and I have to go mail auction items as tomorrow will be a snowy day-maybe. They say the roads may not get bad. Crossing fingers.

Jan4

You gotta have heart

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“You gotta have heart,miles and miles of heart…” from the broadway show Damn Yankees
(a bow to my brother who sang that song in his senior play)


Anyway…I hung up my faux red berry wreath ($3.24-Happy Harry’s Drugstore) and added a little heart(49¢) on my dark teal door to warm us up for Valentine’s Day. I took down a few outside decorations and the stockings. Little Christmas is the 6th, but we may be going to Winterthur on their final day of displaying costumes from some historic movies. Kate Winslet’s gowns are included. You can actually go here and see them online!I love seeing costumes. One of my fondest memories as a teen was going to John Wanamaker (I believe) in downtown Philadelphia and getting to see some costumes from ‘The Ten Commandments (Anne Baxter’s gauzy Egyptian gown), and many circus costumes from ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’. They had ‘True Grit’ playing on a big screen for the gawkers entertainment. I guess the eye patch that John Wayne wore must have been there. That was easily about 32+ yrs ago.


My living room is more like a Victorian parlor and I bought this stained glass floor lamp a few years ago. My mother-in-law had one and I loved it, so I decided to get this. I am thinking about changing that room a little. I saw a circular sofa on Extreme Makeover:Home Edition that separates in three sections. Why couldn’t we have a little flat screen tv over the fireplace? And I want to put marble on the brick over the fireplace. (dreamer)

Dec31

Bri shots

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Bri told me I could have had the camera set at a different setting for my Longwood Garden photos. Too bad he didn’t show me how to set it and I may have gotten better shots. He still has some shaky shots from a slow shutter, but these I really liked (from last night)

The front door-has a spot light on the very light reflective wreath

Looking through the front window-some of the snowbabies can be seen, but the tree looks pretty too!

No flash, just tree lights

Looking at the house from the long side of the yard

He redeemed himself a little taking these awesome shots, but I’m still mad about the basement. So much work to do!

Dec28

Sad end of the year

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The three of us got up at the crack of dawn-no light-not our time of day at all. It’s cold and dark. But we did it for our family and to remember dear Aunt Berenice. We took separate vehicles as I went to get my mom and the guys had to be at the church a little earlier. It was nice to have quiet on the way down and not hear complaining about the early rising, etc.
B had 11 members of her immediate family there before her closed casket (what she wanted). They were pretty good, but Aunt Sue was a mess. She and B had been like sisters. The entire 25+ yrs I have know her, I haven’t seen her that upset. It was a nice mass with the priest recalling a newlywed B cooking ham and cabbage for the first time and forgetting to take it out of the can. : )
Mom and I didn’t go to the cemetery, but we drove around a little. Mom wanted to see the house that she lived in for 15 yrs in the same town. We were holding our breath, and lo and behold, it was still there and being renovated much to our surprise! I think that made my mom feel good.
We went to the family home (B’s daughter, s-in-l and two kids lived with her). Gerry, her daughter had beautifully decorated the entire place for Christmas-every nook and cranny. I was wondering if she would and she had started a few months ago. I never saw so many Christmas arrangements! I don’t plan to take my stuff down until January 6th or so-we call it ‘Little Christmas’. I go to a lot of trouble to decorate and taking it down too soon just won’t do. The only things that may come down earlier are the outdoor stuff.
So we visited a little and then headed home. Mom wanted to see her old friend’s house in the same town. We didn’t know that Bri and Sean were following behind us. They were wondering why we were turning here and there. Ha!
I left about 2:30 from mom’s and got stuck in a lot of traffic. I stopped off at Borders to get a few 50% off calendars-a watercolor one for mom and crochet, Victorian fairy and origami ones for me!

Dec25

A nice Christmas eve

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Kenny, Tori and Sean on Christmas eve

Part of my brother Ken’s finished kitchen/family room. He put the stone work around the gas fireplace himself. That’s a flat screen tv over the fireplace. They had two trees, the other real one is in the next photo.
Tori and me wearing our paper crowns from our Christmas crackers-an English tradition. I happen to find some in a dollar store.
Tori and a Belle doll I gave her.

Brian’s aunt has left us a message on the answering machine and she sounded a little disoriented. She told us that Brian’s other aunt, Berenice passed away on Saturday. She had dementia and had gone down to 50 some pounds. She died at home with everyone around her. She was a dear woman who smiled with her eyes and always made you feel at home in her beautiful Victorian home. Her son and husband were Brian’s teachers where he went to high school. Aunt Sue said she looked at peace at the end. Her funeral is Thursday and Brian and Sean will be pallbearers.

We went to a lovely (but warm) midnight mass service in Delaware last night. The music was wonderful and I couldn’t keep my eyes off an urn on the altar with white, olive green and deep pink colors. Branches that stuck out of the top were white.

We got to sleep about 2 am and I slept better! : )